CRASH TO DESKTOP - Possible Solution

This message was edited 17 times. Last update was at 08/07/09 02:19 PM

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LAST UPDATE TO THIS POST: AUGUST 7, 2009

UPDATE TO SOLUTION TO CRASH TO DESKTOP
AND SAVE ERROR ISSUES
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AUG 7, 2009:
DELETE ALL CACHE FILES
MOD USERS ESPECIALLY NEED TO DO THIS
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This is especially relevant if you have installed any mods or custom content from independent creators. Disable all mods (move them to a temp directory outside of the TS3's directory structure) until you have a clean running game or you will not know if your crashes are due to the game or indie custom content and/or mods effecting the game.

Delete the following files located in your document/electronic arts/sims 3 directory:

CASPartCache.package
scriptCache.package
simCompositorCache.package

Then delete all files in the WORLDCACHE directory

This will give your game a chance to rewrite the caches based on no installed mods or indie custom content, just official TS3 content, as some custom content and mods overwrite some content in the game and it is saved in these cache files which can cause a crash if they are not written correctly. The cache files will automatically be rewritten when you start the game. You can always re-add your custom content and mods after you have a game that runs without crashing, then if it crashes you can know that it is the game or some other technical problem such as graphics driver or graphics driver setting and not the mods or indie custom content causing the problem.

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UNINSTALL EADM (EA Download manager)
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It appears that it too is contributing to the crash. How? Only EA can answer that one, but it needs a definite fix. I will update this post as soon as a compatible EADM is tested that works, because we need the EADM to play any other games purchased through the EA download store.

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SET HIGH DETAILED LOTS NO HIGHER THAN 4
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I say no higher than 4 because I'm using an ultra fast Intel i7 975 quad core processor with two nvidia gtx295 cards (not bragging - I didn't design the dang thing, but it is the fastest CPU/GPU processor combo available at the time of this writing) and anything higher than 4 and it crashes to desktop, so I am assuming that 4 must be the max for most multi-core processors using nvidia cards (and more than likely ATI cards as well), and as usual this may not be the case for your computer so start at a low number - test - then if no crash take it up a notch to see if your computer can take it. If it crashes, take it back down a notch.

NOTE: Don't attempt any fancy graphics card enhancements or overclocking, just leave your settings to default until you have stabilized the game. This also proved fatal when I tried some fancy-pants graphics card settings, though for you SLI'ers I am using with success an SLI setting of MAXIMUM RENDERED FRAMES 8 and 4 GPU ALTERNATE FRAME RENDERING 2, but only AFTER I got the game stabilized on its own.

The maximum HIGH DETAILED LOTS when stepped down from MAX (regardless of the power of your computer or graphics card), as well as uninstalling the EADM until a fix comes out for it, has successfully ENDED all crashing to the desktop and save errors.

I reduced HIGH DETAILED LOTS from 16 (max) to 8 this reduced, but did not eliminate the crash to desktop and save errors. I reduced it to 6 (even less crashing) and finally I set it to 4 and this seems to eliminate ALL crashing to the desktop and even the infamous SAVE ERROR 12 or 13). In fact, I got an ERROR 13 on a save when I had the high detailed lots set to 8, then set it to 4 and it saved the game without a problem. I also tried bumping high detailed lots back up to 8 and voila...CRASH in 30 seconds

PLEASE NOTE: This post has been edited to place the results of what we have found in this opening post instead of having to read through the entire thread while we were experimenting.

Crash To Desktop Report #2:

[Exception info]
date: 2009-07-31
time: 21.11.12
type: ACCESS_VIOLATION reading address 0x00000014
address: 0x005c3eee "C:\Program Files (x86)\Games\The Sims 3\Game\Bin\TS3.exe":0x0001:0x001c2eee

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 08/01/09 04:50 AM

i agree, EA, you're getting ridiculous

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 08/01/09 05:27 AM

Hey Symanteco,

I can't help with your crashes, as my game no longer crashes since the new patch - but I just wanted to tell you I put your Avatar Sims in my game yesterday. Just send him knocking on EA's door, maybe they'll choose not to ignor that righteous dude. hehehe

Honestly though I was skeptical about putting this adorable looking hunk in the game with what you had to say about his personality, but he's working out rather well after all. Two of my hoods loveliest - born ingame beauties who just turned YA are hot on his trail. They were best friends growing up - but I've got a feeling it's not going to last seeing both of them are after your avatar.

Anyway good luck on fixing your crashes. By the way, have you tried by passing the launcher by making a shortcut directly to the ts3 button? I did that before the newest patch which made the desktop crash far less frequent before this new patch - and "knocks on wood" since this new patch, my problems have ceased altogether with the game. I also don't have any mods in here but like clothing, skins, etc type of mods - which also might have fixed a few things. Which has also made me decide to play the game "modless", as I can live with out the "CTDT" annoyances.

Try googling the error...

DasmX86Dll.dll is an artifact from the error reporting proces and does not nor should not exsist. EA is working on that issue. In the meantime you can try this which clears the problem so long as the game does not crash again and create the same issue afterwards.

Copy My Documents/Electronic Arts/Sims 3/Saves to a safe location.

Uninstall the game via add/remove programs or the provided unistaller.

Delete all Sims 3 folders it leaves behind. (Look in Prgram files and My Documents)

Run regedit and delete all sims 3 keys.

Reboot.

Install the game and patch it.

Load the game to Sunset Valley.

Quit.

Redownload all CC, store items etc and install those.

Load Sunset Valley again.

Quit.

Now put the saves folder you rescued back where it came from and - hopefully- enjoy your game.

Okay so, I had the exact same problem, and so many people here tried helping me resolve it, but NOTHING worked.

I decided I would go to MTS, and someone there posted instructions on what to do to stop the crashes.
AND IT WORKED FOR ME

Sinse I have tried everything and this was the only thing that worked for me - read it and try it out.

http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/79313.page

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 08/01/09 10:14 PM

Been there, done that to the extreme i.e. I started with an entirely new 1TB HDD and Vista install and only installed TS3 and no CC or mods...CRASH!!!

REGISTRY CLEANERS CAUSE MORE DAMAGE THAN GOOD, ESPECIALLY ON THE VISTA OS.

THIS on a virgin OS! You can't get any cleaner install than this and my system cannot be upgraded any higher than what I have (except maybe adding another 12GB of RAM to already 12GB of RAM), unless of course the minimum specs are a CRAY supercomputer.

TS3 is THE ONLY game out of many that this system will not play without consistent and predictable crashing, and I am not alone in this.

Wich is why I did not say use a registry cleaner. Do it manually. Yes it takes a few minutes to check for all of the keys but, it isn't difficult.

Uh, DarkA, I said I took a brand new HDD and installed a brand new OS on it and only the Sims 3 - It still crashed! Cleaning the registry on a virgin OS and uninstalling and reinstalling TS3 is redundant.

Symanteco - Writin_Reg here again, I was just checking over your error report once more and this time I noticed that your virtual memory is excessively low and it seems all the Sims games seem to seek out virtual memory even when there is plenty of accessable ram in the system. I recall this was an issue in Sims 2 when I believe it was Pets that had a problem and would crash if the virtual memory was too low. Granted Pets had a main kernal memory leak due to some strange coding issues that were actually caused by an earlier added EP (Uni I think it was or OFB) but it didn't start presenting a problem until Pets came out. A lot of us were able to increase our virtual memory by increasing our ram first and it seemed to handle the exception without as much crashing - but where you already have 12 gb of ram, shouldn't you have the ability to increase the virtual memory and see if that doesn't perhaps alleviate some of the crashing?

Good point, I do run with a veritable ton of VM. I max it on all hard drives (4 of them) That may be the trick of this game.

I never thought about that since I've had my maxed for several years, it's just how I set up computers, Sims or not.

Writin_Reg,

It already has 12.5 GB allocated to virtual by the system, but TS3 only seems to allocate 2GB. I bumped it up to 24GB and let's see what happens after I reboot and run the game again. ironically, I DID notice the small amount of VM that was being allocated earlier - you're sharp

RESULTS: NO JOY

As you can see, regardless of how much virtual memory you assign from the system, TS3 only allocates a small amount within the program:

Memory load: 38%
Total physical memory: 12278 Mb (12 Gb)
Available physical memory: 7524 Mb (7.5 Gb)
Total page file memory: 62215 Mb (62 Gb)
Available page file memory: 57455 Mb (57 Gb)

Total virtual memory: 2047 Mb (2 Gb) <=== whats up with that?
Free virtual memory: 119 Mb

Hmmm, well that stumps me, as I have no clue other than perhaps you need to file an actual ticket requesting help from EA technicians with this issue because you defintely have the machine to play the game. I had weird crashes up until I uninstalled the download manager after updating to the newest patch and that seemed to stop mine. I'm running an 64 bit AMD Phenom Quad core with 6 gig of ram and a Nvidia Geforce 9400 with one gig of ram on it and like you had CTD at all kinds of random places. I noticed they got even more frequent after the EADM updated and it was suggested to me to remove the DM which stopped most of the crashes. Then when the patch came out and I installed that, then again deleted the EADM, I haven't had any further crashing. I also noticed the VM usage has improved drastically after I removed the EADM. Which to me makes little sense, but it is so.

So I think you should just try hounding EA to give you some answers though, as there is no way your pc should suffer this kind of craziness.

Watch it in task manager, mine climbs fast to 1.5 gig or so of each then levels off. (Maxed out at 1.68 gig VM amd 1.74 RAM)